Chương 5 - Breakfast With a Stranger
Her name was Laura Vale.
She chose the meeting place.
A diner beside a highway where truckers came and went constantly and nobody paid attention to anyone else.
When I entered, I recognized her immediately.
She had Rebecca's eyes.
Laura stood.
“You're Clara.”
It wasn't a question.
I sat across from her.
“You knew I existed?”
“For years.”
“Why didn't you contact me?”
“Because I was afraid he'd find out.”
She didn't need to say Julian's name.
I placed Rebecca's photograph on the table.
Laura stared at it.
Her composure cracked.
“Where did you get that?”
“My father.”
She looked at me sharply.
“Thomas?”
“You knew my father?”
“Once.”
My skin prickled.
“When?”
“About six months before he died.”
Everything shifted again.
Laura explained.
My father had contacted her after finding an old newspaper clipping about Rebecca.
He had apparently been investigating Julian privately.
“Why?”
“Because he suspected something.”
“What?”
Laura looked toward the window.
“Your husband asked your father to change the ownership structure of several properties.”
That sounded plausible.
After my father's death, I had inherited real estate worth millions.
“He thought Julian was trying to position himself to control everything if something happened to you.”
I swallowed.
“What did you tell him about Rebecca?”
Laura folded her hands.
“My sister wasn't suicidal. She wasn't abusing medication. She was planning her wedding.”
“Then what happened?”
“Julian convinced everyone she'd become unstable.”
Exactly like the search Caleb found.
Symptoms of severe depression.
Laura continued.
“He started telling friends she was anxious. Forgetful. Drinking too much. None of it was true.”
“He created a story before she died.”
“Yes.”
My blood chilled.
Had he been doing that to me?
I thought about conversations over the past year.
Julian telling friends my migraines had returned.
Julian joking that I was forgetful.
Julian mentioning stress.
Building a narrative.
Slowly.
Patiently.
“What about Mercer?”
Laura's face changed.
“You know about him?”
“He signed Rebecca's death certificate.”
Laura leaned closer.
“My sister was terrified of him.”
“Mercer?”
“Julian.”
She corrected herself.
“Both.”
She reached into her bag and removed an envelope.
“This belonged to Rebecca.”
Inside was a handwritten letter.
Laura had kept it seventeen years.
Rebecca described strange medication appearing in her apartment.
Julian pressuring her to sign insurance documents.
A doctor named Nathan telling her she was “overreacting.”
The final paragraph made my hands shake.
If anything happens to me, Julian will say I did it to myself. Please don't believe him.
I looked at Laura.
“Why wasn't this given to police?”
“It was.”
“What?”
“They said it wasn't enough.”
“Did Julian know?”
“I don't know.”
That terrified me.
Because if Julian knew the letter existed, he might know Laura still had a copy.
“Can I photograph it?”
Laura nodded.
I did.
Then she said, “There's something your father never knew.”
“What?”
“Rebecca wasn't Julian's first.”
The words hung between us.
I stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
Laura slid another photograph across the table.
A young woman.
Dark hair.
Maybe thirty.
“Her name was Michelle Grant.”
“Who was she?”
“Julian's girlfriend before Rebecca.”
“What happened?”
“Car accident.”
I already knew what came next.
“Insurance?”
Laura nodded.
“Five hundred thousand.”
Three women.
Michelle.
Rebecca.
Me.
Different amounts.
Same beneficiary.
Same pattern.
The numbers were increasing.
Five hundred thousand.
Two million.
Twenty-four million.
Julian hadn't suddenly decided to kill his wife.
If Laura was right, he'd been refining the same scheme for almost twenty years.
My phone vibrated.
Julian.
Where are you?
I looked around the diner.
“Did anyone follow you?” Laura asked.
“I don't think so.”
Then another message.
Clara?
I typed:
Shopping.
The reply came instantly.
At a diner?
My blood froze.
Laura saw my expression.
“What?”
I slowly looked through the window.
Cars filled the parking lot.
Across the highway sat a black SUV.
Its windows were tinted.
I couldn't see the driver.
Another message appeared.
Come home. We need to talk.
For the first time, Julian had stopped pretending.
And I understood with terrifying certainty that somewhere between leaving my house and sitting down with Laura Vale, I had made a mistake.
May you like
My husband knew I was investigating him.
And now he was waiting for me at home.
